Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami yesterday said he had to have "confessional talks" with the outgoing president of the European Council, Silvio Berlusconi, after outstanding issues hindering agreement to an EU constitution were identified in a plenary session during the EU summit in Brussels.
Speaking to the press last night, Dr Fenech Adami said the presidency had decided to hold "confessionals" with the heads of government who were still insisting on any issues that were identified yesterday.
The meetings were scheduled to last till one this morning and to start again at 7 a.m. today until 11, when the plenary session is set to re-convene.
One of the principal issues is the extension of the qualified majority voting.
The EU is pushing for a system whereby decisions are adopted by a double majority consisting of at least half the number of EU states representing at least 60 per cent of the EU population. Some countries are insisting on a weighted majority voting.
The other issues are the set-up of the Commission and the threshold of the number of members of the European parliament.
Dr Fenech Adami said there appeared to be consensus that each member state would have a commissioner and what remained to be determined was whether each commissioner would be responsible for a particular "ministry" or not.
Regarding the European Parliament, there was resistance to increasing the overall number of MEPs but the number of heads of government who were supporting Malta's call to raise the threshold from four to six was growing.
Britain, Luxembourg and Cyprus were openly supporting Malta on the matter, the prime minister said. But it was too early to say whether the proposal would be accepted.
Malta already has a guarantee that it will have five MEPs in the accession treaty but these could eventually go up to six, if the island has it its way, when the new constitution comes into force in 2009.
Another issue Malta is insisting on is a more specific definition of those islands that could benefit from cohesion funds.
Asked whether Malta was still insisting on a clear reference to Christianity in the constitution, Dr Fenech Adami said the matter had not been raised in yesterday's session. It is likely to be discussed today, or possibly even tomorrow.
Mr Berlusconi said the meeting, originally planned to end on Saturday night, could continue on into Sunday. Both Mr Berlusconi and French President Jacques Chirac said there were essentially two outstanding issues: the formation of the Commission and qualified majority and voting rights.
European parliament president Pat Cox told the conference he disagreed with those who argued that a Constitutional Treaty was not indispensable and that not achieving a result this weekend was merely a postponement.
"I see no reason to believe that some of the more difficult issues we face will suddenly become easier in the New Year. It is not as if those issues are new or require further debate. They now require concentrated attention to reach solutions."
Mr Cox said the further reduction of qualified majority voting or making it easier to block decisions in the EU might provide superficial assurance to public opinion in the member states in the short term but in the long term it would risk undermining the EU's capacity to act.
Mr Cox also urged the summit to look at the distribution of seats in the European parliament and "perhaps" to take account of the concerns of the smallest member states and to recognise the concerns of others about their representation in other institutions. He appealed to EU leaders to place greater emphasis on the positive aspects of the Constitutional Treaty "and perhaps a little less emphasis on perceived threats to national sovereignty".
In the morning, EU president Romano Prodi and Mr Berlusconi announced the council had approved a "road-map" charting the way forward in economic growth, freedom, security and justice, enlargement and external relations in the enlarged Europe. The document also refers to the situation in Iraq, terrorism, the Middle East peace process, the Russian Federation and other issues.
The council welcomed the political agreement for the development of the Trans-European Transport network which will allow all member states of the enlarged EU to participate fully in the internal market.
The council also welcomed the accession countries as full EU members and invited them to intensify and complete their final preparations for membership.
Dr Fenech Adami said the document was "forward looking" and paved the way for more economic growth in the EU region.